i will be taking part in my first hill climb time trial this coming sunday here in bath. to celebrate the end of the season my local cycling club vc walcot have organised the event with the course running uphill for 900 metres and with a rise of 81 metres. i think i am correct in saying the course record was previously set by robert gough with a time of 2:43.1. robert who is also the defending champion will again be riding this sunday. i will be doing a reconnaissance of the course this evening to get an idea of what kind of time i can expect. i will let you know how i get on.
for anyone who is in the area this sunday and wants to watch the suffer fest unfold details of the hill climb including map of the course can be seen above. it should be a good laugh.
last sunday kenyan patrick makau set a new men's marathon world record by finishing the berlin marathon in a time of two hours, three minutes and 38 seconds. in doing so defending champion makau shaved 21 seconds off etheopia's haile gebrselassie who had set the previous record on the same course back in 2008.
the news of makau's feat was of particular significance to me since i also ran my very first marathon in berlin on that sunny autumn day when the great gebrselassie broke his own record although my race was very different to his. i finished in twice the time gebrselassie did but the effort and pain involved in just finishing 42km gave me a great appreciation for what a super human effort gebrselassie had given.
for makau to have beaten gebrselassie's record on one of the most famous of marathon circuits will certainly place makau in the spotlight and must surely make him a big favourite for london 2012.
as for gebrselassie unfortunately he did not finish sundays race having pulled up with stomach problems at the 35km mark. hopefully he will recover well and be able to get himself competitive for next year's olympics. to see gebrselassie racing through the streets of london will definately be one of my highlights in 2012 as it will be to see the great paula radcliffe who managed third on sunday behind kenya's Florence Kiplagat and Germany's Irina Mikitenko. radcliffe finished in a time of two hours, 23 minutes and 46 seconds, her fastest since 2007. kiplagat won in a time of two hours, nineteen minutes and 44 seconds.
below is footage of makau's final run in to the line. it was amazing to see how fresh he looked at the finish. as soon as he crossed the line he ran back out onto the course to celebrate with the fans.
ok so a knighthood might be taking it a little far but britain's mark cavendish mbe should surely have banked his place as 2011 bbc sports personality of the year yesterday after team gb delivered him to just under one km from the finish where upon he confirmed his status as fastest sprinter on the planet by beating australia's matthew goss and germany's andré greipel to the line. in doing so he secured possibly the greatest victory of his professional career so far by becoming world champion. the beauty of becoming world champion is that he will now have the honour of wearing the prestigious rainbow stripes until next year's world championships. not since tom simpson in 1965 has a britain won this event.
this victory tops yet another fantastically successful year for cavendish having already won two stages of the giro d'italia and five stages of the tour de france along the way to taking his first points classification jersey. the victory also confirms britain's credentials as one of the top performing nations in the world of professional cycling. it has been an amazing week for britain's table topping cyclists having already scored gold with lucy garner in the junior women's road race, silver for bradley wiggins and elinor barker in the elite men's time trial and the junior women's time trial plus emma pooley and andrew fenn won bronze medals in the women’s time trial and the under 23 men's road race.
hats off though to team gb for yesterday's performance which was planned and executed to near perfection. the team controlled the peloton well in the final quarter of the race bringing back, almost single handedly, multiple attacks from a variety of escapees. the effort team gb made in order to have the race finish in a bunch sprint left them all but spent by the final kilometre apart from cavendish who demonstrated his ability to win without the need for a sprint train delivering him super close to the line. in addition to cav the team included bradley wiggins, david millar, geraint thomas, ian stannard, jeremy hunt, chris froome and steve cummings. gentlemen, i raise a toast to you all!
(check out the last 6km of yesterday's race below)
yuji yamada is an artist i have profiled here before. the images below are some of yuji's latest creations and form part of his limited edition handmade tour de france 2011 drawing zine.
for further details on how to purchase one of yuji's drawing zines click here.
below is video footage of the climax to yesterdays uci road world championship elite men's time trial competition. the 46.4km curcuit around the streets of copenhagen in denmark was the setting for one of the most exciting tt's in recent memory which ended in victory for germany's tony martin, aka der panzerwagen, who happened to be in the form of his life. martin thrashed the competition, including a strong display from britain's bradley wiggins who finished in second place. martin's time gap to wiggins was 01:15.83 with a finish time of 53:43.85.
switzerland's very own spartacus fabian cancellara could only manage third spot after he took one of the final corners too hard and came to a near stand still beside a barrier before pushing off again to finish 4.76 seconds down on wiggins.
an honorable mention (this is a british blog afterall) goes to britain's david millar who will have been pleased with his seventh place result especially considering the birth of his son less than two weeks ago will have quite rightly side tracked his preparation.
all eyes now turn to this weekends elite women's and men's road races which take place on saturday and sunday respectively. it is one of my favourite competitions of the year and with strong representation in both women's and men's fields should be hard fought over although it is difficult to see past belgium's philippe gilbert as an obvious choice for the men's winner. victory for gilbert in this competition would seal what would be one of the most successful seasons of any pro cyclist, certainly in recent history. time will soon tell...
it was a real treat stumbling upon take charge bikes in my new home town of bath a few days ago. until then i had not thought much about electric bicycles. they just did not seem very sexy compared with the carbon and steel italian beauties i have always had a preference for. my attention was immediately drawn though when i spotted the prominently placed bicycle in the window from across the street. although my favour for the road bike has not been swayed my perception of what an electric bicycle could look like has changed, electric bicycles can be sexy too.
david, the owner of take charge bikes (that is him in the above photo) was kind enough to give me a mini tour of his store and although he keeps a varied stock of electric bicycles, including a couple of very handsome looking full suspension mountain bikes which i may well review at a later stage, my attention kept getting drawn back to the steel framed single speed board track racer. with it's derny bike / cafe racer
retro styling this cruiser is undoubtedly a real head turner.
the track racer is fabricated in scotland by polish designer and builder piotr wozny. for approximately £2000 piotr will build one bespoke and handmade to the customers size specifications. things like chain ring and cogs can also be changed depending on preference. i reckon that is pretty good value for money considering how easy it is to blow two grand for an off the peg bike these days.
in terms of bicycle specification the track racer features a 250w electric motor powered by a 24v lifepo4 battery which is housed in a handmade leather bag. the builder claims a fully charged battery will do an average distance of 25 miles although i am sure that is dependent on speed and topography of the area being ridden through.
here is a list of some of the bikes features:
front and rear hub - novatec
rims - rigida big bull
spokes - dt champion 2.0 silver
tyres - geax tattoo light 26 x 2.30
crank set - 48t
pedals - outland kustom slim
rear cog - 18t
brakes - vbrake shimano deore
brake levers - cane creek
saddle - brooks b-72
for further details on the track racer including maximum speed, battery recharge time and type of steel tubing or indeed if you wish to test ride this or any other bike please contact david on +44 (0)1225 789568, info@takechargebikes.co.uk or visit his website www.takechargebikes.co.uk.
yesterday's stage 17 victory by sky's chris froome will be remembered for a long time to come. the way the kenyan born brit battled up the final climb of the day against spain's juan jose cobo was breathtaking in parts and there is no doubt froome will be getting paid a heck of a lot more money when he signs his next contact since his current contract with sky expires at the end of this season. i do not think any of us thought he could be so consistently excellent over the length of a grand tour. thanks for proving us wrong chris, it really has been a pleasure.
below is the last 22 minutes of what was one of the highlights from this season.
we have all heard the term motor pacing which is used to explain the method of training where the rider cycles behind a vehicle of some sorts, usually a scooter, at a high threshold speed for a sustained period of time. the rider is able to benefit from slipstreaming due to their being so close to the rear of the scooter. although less technical the effect is similar to that of drafting within a group of riders. i used to do a spot of motor pacing myself tucking in behind the backside of london buses. alas my opportunities have deminished since locating to bath.
below is a short video showing canadian pro michael barry during a motor pacing session. it is a perespective we very rairly get to see and perfectly shows, on barry's face, the intense effort involved in this type of training.
